ST. JOSEPH Volunteers with the College of St. Benedict's new, end-of-the-year "Stash it. Don't trash it." recycling initiative aren't above dumpster-diving to keep couches out of the landfill.

It won't come to that if students who plan to ditch large furnishings when they move off campus follow the recycled cardboard signs to one of four collection points.

There, CSB sustainability fellow Alex Chocholousek and about 30 volunteers will decide what can be cleaned up, fixed and resold.

"We've always had an issue with the amount of waste at move-out," Chocholousek said earlier this week.

He's seen those couches, futons, chairs, TVs, refrigerators, toasters and other items pile up on the curbs. "Stash it. Don't trash it." aims to divert reusable items from the landfill, store them during the summer, and then sell them to students at move-in. Another benefit: The effort could lighten the load on the maintenance department.

With vehicles on loan from the College of St. Benedict and St. John's Abbey Arboretum's Outdoor University, volunteers will move salvageable donations to a 40-foot-long semitrailer provided by Rice Building Systems for summer storage.

The first collection on May 9 netted a few futons. Chocholousek said he would track which days and times were the busiest.

"I would love to see it become just a perennial thing, just a thing that happens every year that people look forward to. I would like to see it divert as much trash away from landfills as possible," Chocholousek said. "And just providing some affordable, sustainable furnishings for people when they move in."

Pricing has yet to be determined. Proceeds would help pay for the event and related marketing. Any profits would benefit the sustainability office's campus initiatives and as-yet-undetermined charities.

"I have really no idea how much stuff we're going to end up with or if people are going to want to buy it," Chocholousek said. "Hopefully, we'll have some money to give back to our community."

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A sign marks the location for donated items to be placed as part of the “Stash it. Don’t trash it” program at the College of St. Benedict.
(Photo:
Dave Schwarz, dschwarz@stcloudtimes.com
)

Chocholousek, 23, who graduated from St. John's University in 2013 with an environmental studies major, said he didn't know what sort of response to expect from the three collection dates. The last is Sunday. One measure of success could be pounds kept out of the landfill.

"We don't have any benchmarks, and we just plan on doing it next year," Chocholousek said. He'll be back next year, too, as a sustainability coordinator at CSB. Meanwhile, during the summer he'll help to clean and repair items destined for next fall's move-in sale.